During a recent review of the many Syria related photographs I've downloaded from a variety of sources, I came across the following photographs from
Muzeireeb, Daraa, posted to Facebook on February 11th 2014
It's unclear if the locals took a closer look at the remains of the unexploded bomb, and they may have (sensibly) decided to leave the huge unexploded bomb alone. It's described as the remains of an unexploded barrel bomb, nothing too unusual in Syria, but there's something about this example that makes it very interesting.
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| Still from video |
The front of the bomb has two slots cut into the side, and a metal bar with two long bolts running through it. This is a very unusual feature which also appears in some of the chlorine barrel bombs used since April 11th
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| Bomb dropped on Kafr Zita on April 18th |
The assumption is the bar was to hold the end of the cylinder away from the ground, so it would have enough room to release the gas contained in the cylinder on impact, with the slots on the side allowing the gas to escape. If that's the case, then it seems likely the example from Muzeireeb was also a chemical barrel bomb, used two months before the first attack in Kafr Zita on April 11th, and hundreds of miles away in Daraa. It begs the question whether other reported chemical attacks since (and even before) February were chemical barrel bombs, and how long these have been in use by the Syrian air force.
